I recently attended a workshop in Hawaii to discuss frugivory and seed dispersal on islands and how human impacts may have changed this important plant-animal interaction. Don Drake (University of Hawaii, USA) and Kim McConkey (National Institute of Advanced Studies,

Seedlings of the nationally endangered shrub Hebe armstrongii were recently discovered for the first time at Enys Scientific Reserve in Canterbury by Moa’s Ark Research ecologist Dr Debra Wotton and Department of Conservation botanist Nick Head.

Seedlings of the critically endangered dry plains shrub daisy establish only when invasive grasses are sprayed with herbicide. We will investigate whether habitat restoration can be used as an alternative, less intensive, management option to suppress invasive grasses and enable dry plains shrub daisy to regenerate.

In a paper recently published online, Debra Wotton (Moa’s Ark Research) and co-author Kate McAlpine (Department of Conservation) found that nearly a third of invasive plant species in New Zealand have fleshy-fruits whose seeds are dispersed by animals.

Debra Wotton, Principal Ecologist & Director at Moa’s Ark Research, recently gave an invited talk on the role of lizards as seed dispersers in New Zealand at the SRARNZ (Society for Research on Amphibians and Reptiles in New Zealand) conference